In long-term care it is increasingly apparent that who is on shift is just as important as how many staff are on shift. Quality care is difficult to achieve when we do not routinely engage with one another in a positive, or civil, manner.
WorkSafeBC’s healthcare and social services planned inspection initiative focuses on high-risk activities in the workplace that lead to serious injuries and time-loss claims.
WorkSafeBC is releasing a discussion paper with proposed amendments to the Current Rehabilitation Services and Claims Manual that guide wage rate decisions related to short-term and long-term disability compensation. Recommended amendments include: These changes may affect your claims costs. Click here to view the proposed changes and offer feedback to WorkSafeBC – The deadline is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, […]
You Matter is a modern app created for all smart devices—it is the epitome of trying to keep up with all the technological changes in our society. When You Matter was created, the idea was based on appealing to both modernization and convenience for our members. Most of our members (and everyone else in the […]
You Matter is a modern app created for all smart devices—it is the epitome of trying to keep up with all the technological changes in our society.
When You Matter was created, the idea was based on appealing to both modernization and convenience for our members. Most of our members (and everyone else in the world) often have a cell phone or tablet ready at hand these days. Though it is also available on desktop, our main goal is to have the app readily available and for convenient usage in the palm of your hand.
When creating You Matter we not only wanted to focus and promote the physical safety of our team, but the emotional and psychological safety as well.
How does it improve workplace safety?
So, we all know what it means to keep our team safe physically—but what about emotionally and psychologically?
Psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
Just like we need water, food, and shelter to survive, teams that want to innovate need a multitude of other things to thrive. Team members need to feel included and safe to learn, contribute: voice ideas and thoughts, recognition: recognize others and their achievements or moments in which they were observed in allowing others to feel included and safe. Lastly, challenge the status quo, say ‘what if’ and explore avenues in how we can continue to grow and create a safe space, get rid of the stigma and have open conversations. Teams progress through these stages as they intentionally create cultures of rewarded vulnerability and work collaboratively to create a safe space for everyone.
Similarly, emotional safety is having the mental security and comfort within the workplace to communicate your feelings, not only with your coworkers but with your managers and other individuals within the team.
The ability to openly communicate discomfort, profound ideas, and personal insecurities without being punished or humiliated creates a space in which emotional safety is available to our team.
Secondly, providing additional resources to members, at no cost, allows us to help our team receive any support in whichever way they may feel is necessary to promote their emotional safety, in turn, this helps to improve and promote positive mental health within our building and creative a positive, supportive workspace.
Readily available to our team is also a section to report any type of incidents (verbal, physical, sexual etc), near misses, and unusual incidents. As time progresses we hope to have more options available for submission on this platform. This will protect the physical safety of our team in a multitude of ways and as forms are submitted to the correct individuals immediately/directly, it assures direct and thorough follow-ups in a reasonable time frame.
What is the impact or expected impact of this idea?
We hope that we will see an increase in all reports due to the convenience this app provides to our team - assuring direct submission and review by the appropriate team members who can then follow up and provide corrective action. Members will directly be notified once their concern has been received, addressed and resolved.
The app will also impact our team safety as we hope to see a continuation of growth working collaboratively, creating a safe platform to have open conversation/communication, providing input and ideas directly and simply feeling as though they matter and are heard, welcomed, safe, acknowledged and important — by all members of the team.
This app allows us to support every person coming through the door, it positively affects everyone within our team, promoting well-being and safety on three separate levels. It’s about keeping our team safe, being kind, celebrating uniqueness, and inspiring others.
You Matter is a modern app created for all smart devices—it is the epitome of trying to keep up with all the technological changes in our society. When You Matter was created, the idea was based on appealing to both modernization and convenience for our members. Most of our members (and everyone else in the […]
The Active Living Program is a restorative care program. The program has been running for ten years. Each Restorative Care Worker (there are 3, one per floor) is assigned to one of Broadway Lodge's neighbourhoods and through their knowledge and skills as Restorative Care Workers (RCWs), they support residents to maintain strength, balance, flexibility, and […]
The Sling Program at Haro Park is a process of managing slings within the care home to ensure staff and resident safety during transfers and efficiency of work flow.
Haro Park Centre is a campus of care located in the West End of Vancouver, offering independent housing, assisted living and residential care to senior citizens. Haro Park has a number of innovative programs and initiatives in place to promote a positive culture of safety.
To encourage and improve both workplace safety education and online learning compliance, Eden Gardens is introducing the “Passport for Safety – Canadian Edition Eh?”
Chilliwack Society for Community Living has enrolled in the WorkSafeBC Certificate of Recognition (COR) initiative that encourages an occupational health and safety management system that goes beyond the current legal requirements.
The idea is to consider the middle day of the week- WEDNESDAY as the day of wellness at workplace. The Site or Floor Manager to take the lead and do a particular wellness activity with their team members.
At the Hamlets there was an issue identified where the relative Health Authorities cohorted N95 material (Specifically 3M product). This is still the case today.
Our Employee-created program “Ten Minutes to Relaxation” was the dream of one of our HCWs. Flordeliza wanted a program for staff that featured Exercise to keep fit and work safely with the residents and staff, an academic program, and a community-supportive idea to welcome all without judgement or bullying.
SHAPEDOWN! A staff wellness initiative: participants agree to make 2 healthy changes to their diet and participate in a minimum of 3, 30 minute exercise sessions per week above their regular activity level.
We are creating safety posters for each department. These posters will have many safety fails in them, to be spotted by our staff. Each department will prepare their space with some safety issues that are frequently spotted in their areas. Staff will submit their entries for best poster, and point out the safety fails.
These bright (very visible) vests allow team members to see and understand safety inspections happening around the workplace. In addition, the vests have also helped teach employees who have English as a second language, to understand the importance.
Create customized and color-coded flash cards to streamline the education process for safety procedures in the home! Noticed the inefficient outcomes that we’ve had for each of our fire drills and discovered the main reason for this was that the staff did not know what to do.
To increase overall safety awareness, we have created a safety game similar to Jeopardy, with four categories, each with three questions, and each of our six communities competes to win our safety drills with new questions every month.
Promote wellness and quality of life for residents and team members, recognize skill and courage of the team, properly grieve beloved residents that passed away.
The Provizio SEM Scanner, is a non-invasive device with rapid results that compares SEM measurements across an anatomical site and reports the difference between values at the inflamed vs. healthy tissue site.
The patient identification band with colour coding is intended for every resident and acts as a helpful way to track and identify residents. For example, the red ID band represents residents who have Alzheimer's disease.
On-The-Right-Track Hookless Patient Cubicle Curtains is a safer and more infection control solution to patient privacy curtains when compared to the traditional option.
At Eden Gardens we had a great idea to increase safety in our care home for people living with dementia. We have created an in-house safety video library.
The Fears and Solutions initiative is about starting a dialogue. Using a blank poster to fill out, staff and students are asked two questions: “What are you afraid of?” and “What are you going to about it?”
In Health Care incivility among coworkers/different shifts/departments can cause workers a great deal of stress and hostility in the workplace. There is a culture in healthcare that is a ‘sink or swim’ mentality rather than a working together and helping each other out. I have worked in healthcare for 27 years as a care aide.
Based on the 8 pillars of Holistic Health (Emotional, Financial, Social, Spiritual, Occupational, Physical, Intellectual, Envirnomental) Research has shown that Long Term Care Workers are going to be particularly susceptible to getting sick as they have been functioning in a high state of stress and anxiety over the past two years.
We strive to empower those working in the continuing care sector to create safer, healthier workplaces by fostering a culture of safety through evidence-based education, leadership, and collaboration.
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